Nikolai BOBKIN

The Middle East faces the vicious circle of US-incited changes of regimes and the established borders of Arab states... The plundered Libya has ceased to be a unified state, Yemen is divided, and the integrity of Syria and Iraq is threatened. The Islamic State, a new product of US diplomacy, has emerged to control the territory larger than Great Britain... It’s not without reason Saudi Arabia is going to erect a 1000-km long wall at the Iraqi border to prevent the spread of chaos from Iraq to the Arabian Peninsula... The emergence of Iraqi Kurdistan, being to large extent dependent of US comprehensive aid, is not acceptable to Turkey...

...The smouldering conflict between the US and Israeli governments has come out in the open. Talking about the US-Israel relations, Barack Obama has done something nobody has done before him. In a sign of the rift that has opened between the White House and Mr. Netanyahu, US officials have stopped briefing his government about the Iran talks... The move is widely seen as revenge for Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress next month, which has raised the ire of the Obama administration...

The White house is working on the 2016 fiscal year budget to begin on October 1, 2015. The draft budget is equal to $1, 8 trillion... The increased spending would add $38 billion for defense programs to hike the military budget up to the record high $561 billion. What poses a threat to the United States? Who is Obama going to fight during the last year of his presidency before he leaves in 2016?.. For the first time the draft budget includes a special expenditure for exerting pressure on Russia...

February 11 is the date to mark the 36th anniversary of the Iran’s Islamic revolution – one of the most important events of the XX century... Normally it’s the time for the government to sum up and assess the results of its work. This year the relationship with Washington and Moscow tops the foreign policy agenda... Now when the Russia-US relationship is at low ebb, the both sides expect Iran to leave behind the policy of compromises and make its stance clear. But they adopt different policies on Iran...

...The US does not rush to recognize the fact of Islamic State’s presence in Afghanistan, but Kabul does not deny the information that the group’s militants coming from Syria and Iraq are operating in the country... The Islamic State would like to open a third front in Afghanistan (after Iraq and Syria)... In the south the Islamic State is trying to split the Taliban to make the group’s militants join its ranks... The leaders of Pakistani Taliban have already pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and are ready to contribute into the creation of Islamic Caliphate...

Russia and Iran have signed a military agreement. This is the first time an inter-governmental military cooperation agreement has been concluded in the centuries-old history of bilateral relations... It’s the first and only military cooperation agreement concluded by Iran with another country. It’s much more important for Iran than the implementation of the obsolete S-300 contract, something the US is concerned about so much. The US has not learned the lesson that Russia taught it by developing military ties with Egypt.

...Iran realizes that Iraq turns into a springboard for launching an Islamic State aggression against Iran so it makes no secret of its involvement there anymore. The supreme leader of Iran Ali Khamenei says the activities of the US and its allies lead to split among Muslims instead of eradicating terrorism. Tehran believes that the only way to counter the threat is to make Iraqi Shiites join the fight against terrorists. The unparalleled in scale pilgrimage of Iraqi and Iranian believers to the Shia holy city of Kerbela is a telling example of Shiites’ unity...

Another meeting of the «big six» with Iran is drawing near. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi announced that the next round of talks on the country's nuclear program would be held in Geneva on December 17 to include direct contacts with the US delegation... The US-Iran contradictions constitute the main hindrance on the way to finding a solution to Iranian nuclear program. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a statement saying that Israel played a crucial role in torpedoing the peaceful settlement. This is just one of the reasons why the United States is not ready for productive result of the talks. There are other reasons as well...

A new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme could begin on 10 December. Started in November 2013, the annual marathon has still not reached the finish line. Both sides are hoping to have worked out the political framework for a future agreement by the end of March, and to have completed the signing of documents by July 2015. The essence of the as yet insurmountable differences is not exactly known, however. Most media reports suggest that the reason for the breakdown of talks is disagreements regarding the outline for the lifting of sanctions, the number of permitted centrifuges, and the fate of a reactor in Arak. However, the opinion that the White House is not ready or not willing to make strategic decisions on such a scale is more well-grounded...

...The November intermediate election was a Republicans’ big win. For the first time since 2006 the GOP gained control of both chambers... It may be an exaggeration but the November 4 vote was viewed as a referendum that Obama lost. This is an undisputed fact. Chuck Hagel has joined the ranks of those who have lost faith in Obama. His resignation is another defeat of Obama in Congress... The Democrats called the election results «a personal defeat of Obama». The Hillary Clinton’s aides told her to keep away from the incumbent President. It means other officials may follow Hagel and resign soon. The number of Obama supporters in the administration may dwindle to unusually low numbers.

In a brazen show of bringing-to-heel in their «special relationship», American political and Pentagon chiefs are openly rebuking the British government to maintain its huge military spend on the NATO alliance – to the possible detriment of already withering public services in austerity-clobbered Britain. The imposition by Washington raises serious questions about the nature of democracy in Britain – the self-proclaimed «Mother of all Parliaments»...